Trinidad and Tobago behaved better under the British

THE EDITOR: We will always have the poor among us, so the excuse that is being used in the media about some citizens not being able to pay for food or to repair their cars is not acceptable.

If the government does not get paid for car inspections, renewal of driver's licences, etc, where will it get the necessary money to build, fix and resurface the many potholed roads throughout our country, which citizens are blaming for the bad state of their vehicles?

Trinis behaved better when the British ran our country. Then our school teachers were trained for a few months abroad, and we also had European nuns as teachers, so we benefited by gaining wider knowledge through them as to how the rest of the world functioned.

Our Prime Minister is being criticised for saying TT is a "lawless dump," but it is. At the corner near my apartment block, non-functioning appliances and garbage are dumped regularly. If we think we can get away with it, most do not obey any laws.

As is pointed out, some have no money to buy school books, pay traffic fines or feed their children, but I bet they will join a Carnival band in full costume.

I love my country and want to live nowhere else. So it is time for all of us to see how we can do better to obey the rules and laws of TT – and be courteous with a smile.

When the police began charging those fines recently, large crowds descended on the Licensing Offices to renew their overdue driver's licences, and get their cars inspected. And it is very noticeable also that our roads have fewer cars since, so that shows that many cars may not have been roadworthy either and could have caused accidents.

PATRICIA BLADES

via e-mail